Lean On Me
by incinera
Summary: Don heads out on an undercover mission. Four days later, Charlie gets a frightening phone call and the search is on...
1. Chapter 1

**Title: Lean On Me**

**By: Incinera**

**Genre: Hurt/Comfort / Drama**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: The season finale exists, therefore I don't own.**

**Beta:** The Very Kind DreamBrother. Thanks again!!

It was so damn hot. Don's tongue felt too big for his mouth and clicked painfully when he swallowed. He forced his eyes open but immediately shut them against the nausea that reared its' head.

Don could feel wet warmth on himself and shuddered as he realized that he was covered in his own clotting blood. This time he _did_ vomit and let out a moan of disgust as it trickled down his face. Wait, _up_ his face. He was upside down; the SUV was upside down. Grimacing, Don brought up a shaking hand and wiped at the bile. He got most of the bile off, but smeared more of the crimson liquid on his face.

Don wanted his father. He wanted Charlie. He wanted somebody, _anybody_ to come and free him from this car that stank of sweat, blood, and vomit.

While still wiping at his face, Don's hand knocked something that was next to his ear. It was his cell phone, ridiculously undamaged and resting on what was formerly the roof of his car. He worked it open and hit speed-dial #1.

Charlie Eppes was standing in front of his chalkboard, considering the equation before him when his cell started vibrating in his pocket. Scowling at the distraction, he pulled the vibrating nuisance and looked at the name on display.

It was Don.

Confused as to why Don would call him while undercover, Charlie answered the phone. "Hello?"

Silence for a long moment, only broken by ragged breathing. The professor frowned. "Don? Is that you?"

"_Charlie..._"

Charlie flinched at the ragged voice. Don sounded like he'd been eating broken glass. "Don? What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

A hoarse laugh. "_Yeah...hurt...car accident..._"A long pause as Don seemed to try to catch his breath. Then, "_Come get me?_" Don's voice faltered and Charlie thought he heard a hint of a sob. A fist closed around Charlie's heart and his hand mimicked it around the chalk he held, snapping it in half.

"Of course Donnie," Charlie soothed. "But you-you need to tell where you are. Tell me where you are so I can come get you."

"_Dad too?_"

Charlie's knees buckled and he grabbed hold of his desk to steady himself. "Dad too, bro, but you need to tell me where you are." No answer. "Don?" Still no answer. "DON!"

_**Author's note: I blame Showcase for this. Let me know what you think. Constructive criticism NEEDED!!**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Title: Lean On Me**** (Chapter II?)**

**By: Incinera**

**Genre: Hurt/Comfort / Drama**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: I do not own...bloody hell...**

Megan winced as she stretched, hearing her back pop loudly, the long hours spent doing paperwork leaving their mark. She glanced over at Colby as he rotated his wrist with an audible crack. None of them were enjoying the desk duty they'd been put on, especially while their friend and SAC was on an important undercover assignment.

They'd wanted at least one of them to go with Don but David's wrist was broken, Colby was apparently still on probation after the nightmare with the Janus list(something even he'd forgotten) and Megan had had the flu. In her opinion, she'd been perfectly capable but Don had ordered her to go back home and rest before she passed out.

An irate growl had the profiler turning to see David fighting with one of the filing cabinets. The one in question had a tendency to stick and sometimes required the use of two hands to open. Currently, David only had one usable hand, the other encased in a dark blue cast The dark-skinned agent looked like he was seriously considering the consequences of shooting the obnoxious thing open. Megan moved to help him when her phone rung shrilly. David looked impatient so she propped it between her shoulder and ear while she yanked at the filing cabinet with both hands. "Reeves."

"Megan?" Charlie's anxious voice asked. "Megan, I need to know where Don is right now. He's hurt and I need to find him."

"What? Charlie, what are you talking about?" The drawer suddenly gave way and Megan landed ungracefully on her butt, the phone flying across the floor. Ignoring David's thanks, she searched for the phone and found it under Colby's desk.

"–asked for Dad. That scared me; he must be really hurt–"

"What?" Megan asked. "I dropped the phone. What are you talking about?"

An audible swallow was heard. "Don called me. He said he'd been in a car accident and he asked me to come get him."

"Asked you to come get him where?? Was he at a hospital?"

"I don't think so. He said he was stuck."

Megan ignored the chill that crawled down her spine and settled in the pit of her stomach. "Charlie, are you at CalSci?" Hearing Charlie's affirmation, she continued, "I'm sending Colby to get you and I'm going to call Don, okay?"

"Uh-huh."

"Okay Charlie. I'm going to call Don now." She hung up and turned to Colby and David, who were watching her worriedly. "Colby, can you go to CalSci and grab Charlie?" He nodded and headed to the elevators.

Megan and David shared an anxious glance and Megan hit her speed-dial. It rang once, twice, thr–

"_Eppes._"


	3. Chapter 3

**Title: Lean On Me**

**By: Incinera**

**Genre: Hurt/Comfort / Drama**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer:** **The show Numb3rs, I own not (my apologies to Yoda)**

**Betaed By: The ****wonderful Dreambrother!**

The buzzing jolted Don back into awareness. The sound of his phone ringing brought about a reflexive grab of the cell-phone and a push of the Talk button. "Eppes."

"Don?" It was an anxious-sounding Megan. "Don, Charlie said...," she trailed off. "Don, are you alright?"

Don tried to focus. "I think I was in a car accident. The car's upside-down and I'm not sure of much else." A beat. Then: "What did Charlie say?"

A soft breath came over the connection. "You called Charlie and told him there'd been an accident. Then he called us."

The dark-haired agent blinked in confusion. "I called Charlie?"

"You don't remember?"

"No, no I don't" He tried to remember but for some reason he just kept remembering the last dinner he'd had at Charlie's, before going undercover. A weak smile curved his lips at the memory of the rib-eye and his stomach let out a loud growl.

"Don? Don, are you still there? Answer me!" Megan's cry alarmed Don and he jerked in surprise before biting his lip to muffle the pained howl that wanted to escape. "Don? Can you hear me?"

Don took a couple of panting breaths before he was certain he could talk without screaming or sobbing. He croaked, "I hear you, Megan. Stop yelling already." Okay he was cranky but his legs, which had been mostly numb before, were now screaming and his head seemed to be throbbing in time with his heart.

"Are you alright? You went quiet for awhile." He had? Huh. "Don, do you know where you are? Do you remember what happened?"

Don swallowed and tried to remember."It was some old building. They'd just gotten a huge shipment and were celebrating. These other guys, I'm not sure who they were, they attacked and there was a _lot_ of guns. Meth labs and gunfire don't mix...there was an explosion."

Megan made an alarmed noise. "You were in an explosion?"

"No, I was in the SUV..." A memory of loud crying. "Someone else was with me."

"Wait," Megan interrupted "There was someone else with you? Who was it? Are they still there?" She sounded uneasy. Don frowned and glanced at the passenger seat. No sign that anything had ever sat there. Carefully, he managed to turn around enough to glance into the backseat. His heart jumped into his throat.

Strapped securely to the backseat, long brown hair almost touching the roof and sticking bloodily to her pale little face, was a small girl of five or six years. She seemed unconscious and her face was coated with blood.

"It's a kid, Megan. A little girl. I crashed the car with a little girl inside" His throat tightened and he had difficulty forcing the words out. Don couldn't look away from the tiny face, deceptively peaceful.

"A little girl? What would–do you know why she was there?"

"No, the only thing...the only thing I remember of her is her crying in the car. And I didn't even remember that at first." Don's stomach twisted into knots and a bitter taste filled his mouth. He thought he might vomit again, and then wondered if he already had.

He was a FBI agent. He was supposed to help people. But he'd been so focussed on his own distress and pain, the little girl hadn't even registered.

He was # FBI! He was supposed to protect people. But right now all he could do was watch the bloody child, and pray he hadn't killed her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Title: Lean On Me**

**By: Incinera**

**Genre: Hurt/Comfort / Drama**

**Rating: T**

**Disclaimer: The season finale exists, therefore I don't own.**

**Beta:** The Very Kind DreamBrother. Thanks again!!

When Charlie entered the bullpen, his first thought was how different this was from his usual visits. Normally, he could see Don as soon as he entered and his brother would head over to fill him in. Now, he could only see his brother's team, clustered around Megan's desk and talking worriedly. It was strange; Megan, David and Liz were standing there but he could only see the glaring absence:

Don wasn't there.

Charlie felt Colby subtly push him further into the bullpen and the curly-haired genius forced his mind to focus.

"Charlie, I spoke to Don." The profiler's expression was grim. "I'm not sure his head injury is as bad as you originally thought but he's trapped in the car with another person who may be even more injured than him."

Charlie was surprised. "Don didn't mention another person."

Megan's somber expression didn't change. "Probably due to his head injury - Don didn't notice the child at first. It sounds as though she was injured as well. Don said she hadn't regained consciousness."

The younger Eppes brother's chest tightened. Now not only was his brother lost and injured, but a little girl was suffering with him. He needed to do something _now_. "Tell me what Don was investigating before the accident."

David spoke without hesitation. "Don was undercover with a group of drug smugglers. Apparently a rival gang attacked, and the gunfire set off an explosion. Don must have just bolted with the kid without calling for backup.

"He was probably trying to get the kid somewhere safe first," Colby offered.

Megan took over. "At some point after leaving the warehouse, Don wrecked the SUV. The GPS isn't functioning, but we traced the location of Don's cellphone down to this general area before the battery gave out." She indicated a roughly traced area on the wall map before pointing at a red pushpin. "This is the location of the warehouse and this," she indicated a green pushpin, "is the meeting spot set up in case Don needed removal from the situation."

Charlie studied the map. "I can set up an equation to show the route Don would be most likely to take," he said flatly.

_**So sorry for the delay! I got a job, I lost that job, I got another job, my aunt died...it's just one fiasco after another over here. Now I've got university to contend with. Yay.**_


End file.
